thought fit to say, 'The Union must be preserved; and hence, all
indispensable means must be employed.' I said this, not hastily, but
deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an indispensable
means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national
authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.
If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is
impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the
ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may
obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle, must and
will come."

The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable discussion to
the President's message and plan, which, in the main, were very
favorably received. Objection was made, however, in some quarters that
the proposition would be likely to fail on the score of expense, and
this objection the President conclusively answered in a private letter
to a senator.

"As to the expensiveness of the plan of gradual emancipation, with
compensation, proposed in the late message, please allow me one or two
brief suggestions. Less than one half-day's cost of this war would pay
for all the slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars per head....
Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of this war would, at the same
price, pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky
and Missouri.... Do you doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the
part of those States and this District would shorten the war more than
eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense?"

Four days after transmitting the message the President called together
the delegations in Congress from the border slave States, and in a long
and earnest personal interview, in which he repeated and enforced the
arguments of his message, urged upon them the expediency of adopting his
plan, which he assured them he had proposed in the most friendly spirit,
and with no intent to injure the interests or wound the sensibilities of
the slave States. On the day following this interview the House of
Representatives adopted the joint resolution by more than a two-thirds
vote; ayes eighty-nine, nays thirty-one. Only a very few of the border
State members had the courage to vote in the affirmative. The Senate
also passed the joint resolution, by about a similar party division, not
quite a month later; the delay occurring through press o